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New and familiar sounds make for a busy week

New and familiar sounds make for a busy week

Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013 12:29 PM

Music offerings in town are plenty this weekend, and the bounty will continue into next week. Metal bands grace the Irish Embassy Underground, its bluegrass at The Hank, and its time to acknowledge the Hello Dollface side project that is now a Monday night fixture at ENO.

Ive never been one to moan about a lack of music in Durango. Perhaps there is too much bluegrass, and maybe one too many musicians who favor a laptop over spinning vinyl when it comes to electronic music. But each music scene has been created out of a necessity to fill a void.

Full House Productions is the brainchild of Brad Dobbs, a local promoter, sound guy and multitasker in the music business. He books rock shows every few months at several venues in Durango and Farmington. Since 2006, he has booked more than 40 shows. Next up is Salt Lake Citys Hour 13 and Burn the Gallows tonight at the Irish Embassy Underground. The former play a blend of hard rock, alternative and a new genre for me, post grunge. Burn the Gallows is a five-piece ban that plays classic and progressive metal.

On the bluegrass front, local trio The Scrugglers and the RD Unit will open for Hot Buttered Rum at the Henry Strater Theatre. The Scrugglers play a familiar set of traditional and not-so-traditional bluegrass. The RD Unit is the latest vehicle to showcase the music of guitarist Robin Davis. Hot Buttered Rum is a California jam band known for improvisation with occasional nontraditional bluegrass instrumentation.

Local quartet Hello Dollface is not territorial when it comes to branching out. Guitarist Travis Dalenberg has side projects like his funk band and the weekly Jazz Church at Moes. But the newest offshoot is Ace Revel, the acoustic 2-o of bass player Jesse Ogle and keyboardist/vocalist Ashley Edwards. Edwards also plays acoustic guitar for the weekly gigs at ENO while Ogle plays a standup bass. The duo formed last summer after another duo Edwards was in fizzled.

Its a good fit because theyre familiar with each others work ethic as Hello Dollface bandmates.

I respect his dedication to music and community, and it makes each of us rise and reach to work harder, Edwards said in an interview in the KDUR studios. We know each other well and have always had a special relationship where communication and business come easy, and creatively we have tight chemistry when it comes to songwriting.

The duo also is a chance for Edwards and Ogle, who churn out new songs at a rapid-fire pace, to write music that is different from what they do in their rock band. We dubbed ourselves raw-coustic soul, Edwards said. It takes on different shades than Hello Dollface, with elements of folk and jazz, and is like a rhythmic-vocal concentrate, boiled down into a saucy set.

Liggett_b@fortlewis.edu. Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager.